


From Friends to Enemies to Strangers

by the_obsidian_ronin



Series: Siths and Science [1]
Category: Star Wars, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 04:04:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6268852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_obsidian_ronin/pseuds/the_obsidian_ronin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He thinks you're dead."<br/>"I know. I have to stop him before he hurts anyone else."<br/>"You're not strong enough for that."<br/>She leaped to her feet, the six-foot-one teen staring Luke in the eye with such drive and malice he visibly flinched. “Then make me strong enough,” she hissed out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Friends to Enemies to Strangers

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya! So, this is a teaser for a story that's still to come for.... possibly a few weeks? I don't know, I don't really have a schedule for this.

“Ben!”

Ben Solo looked up from his crouched position in a dark hallway, seeing someone approach him. “No,” he weakly protested, “don’t come closer.”

The figure stopped, and he hadn’t figured out who the girl was yet. He wiped tears from his eyes, the heels of his palms rough against his eyes.

“Ben, it’s me. It’s Minerva.”

_ Oh. _ That explained that.

“Go away,” Ben protested, his voice cracking under the stress.

Minerva sighed, carefully taking a step forward. “Ben, what’s wrong?”

“ _I said go away!”_

Minerva paused, her violet eyes glowing a little in the dark, before she approached him again. Her black clothes -- something Luke always yelled at her for -- blended her in to the dark walls around them, but as she sat beside him, his hand in hers, she whispered gentle words of encouragement.

Ben sobbed, shaking in her arms, the black-haired phenom that was Minerva smoothing back his hair as the gangly teen leaned on his best friend.

But lately, Minerva remembered, he’d been distant. When she meditated, she could hear more than just one voice in his head-- she’d always assumed it was Luke, because Ben being his nephew and all.

Now she was starting to wonder if it was the same demon that plagued her dreams.

Ben fell asleep in her arms, and she picked him up and carried him to her room. Despite being close with Ben, she didn’t know the codes to his room. No one other than Luke did. She supposed that’s how Ben liked it; only him being able to get to see the most personal part of him, where he hid everything about his anger and hate and made himself as presentable as possible for Luke. 

She set Ben down on her bed, tucking him in and then laying beside him, her arm wrapped around his waist and her sabers from when she was a Sith locked in a box under her bed, where she always kept them. A dark reminder of her past, but something she felt was necessary. 

She remembered, briefly, taking the black metal twin sabers out of the black box to show him one day, when they first became close. Minerva remembered the blood shed with those sabers because of her, though she was the same age as Ben, and how emotionally wrecked she was. She remembered the look Ben had given her, how he’d leaned over the box and kissed her on the forehead with a, “Nothing in your past could change you being my friend, Min-Min.”

She fell into a restless sleep, curled around her tall best friend.

She woke up when there was a disturbance in the Force. Ben was gone, his spot in the bed still warm.

Something was wrong.

Minerva leaped out of the bed, her foot striking something that shouldn’t have been there. She looked down; the box was out in the open, the lid off, and one of the sabers was gone.  _ Ben! _

She grabbed the remaining saber, running to Rey before she could think about anyone else. “Rey!” she whispered, and the little girl woke up, looking up at the taller, older girl.

“Min-Min?” Rey sleepily asked, and Minerva nodded, trying not to panic.  _ Stars, don’t let this be Ben who’s doing this. _

“Something’s wrong. I’m going to stay here and protect you, okay?” Minerva asked, kissing her sister’s head.

Rey nodded, and Minerva picked up Rey to place her somewhere safe, in her closet. Rey’s eyes looked up at her sister like she was a god. “Don’t move from here, okay?” Rey nodded, curling around her knees in the closet as Minerva shut the door. 

_ No matter what I’ve done,  _ Minerva thought to herself,  _ at least Rey will love me. No matter what I do to protect her. _

Moments later, the glow of the twin of her saber came through the door. “Rey, where are you?” Ben sing-songed, and Minerva knew that this wasn’t him.

“She isn’t here, Ben.”

Minerva flipped the switch, and her saber was engaged, the weight in her left hand and mirroring Kylo’s right. She twirled the blade, once, twice, three times to establish a distance between her and Ben.

“Where is she?” Ben hissed out, his voice stronger than it should be.

“Somewhere safe. I’m assuming all the others are dead; you reek of it, and there have been many disturbances in the Force tonight.”

“And yet your response is to run to Rey, your sister,” Ben laughed, almost manically. “Some  _ Jedi _ you are.”

“I was a Sith before I was a Jedi, Ben. You know that.”

Ben paused; there was an internal struggle. And then there was  _ that _ voice, the one that always plagued her dreams as a young Sith apprentice.

_ You can’t win this one, Minerva. Step aside. Let Ben do what I have asked him to do. _

_ Snoke. _

The word was laced with so much hatred, so much  _ pain  _ and  _ malice _ that it made Ben flinch. Snoke was the reason she was here, why she brought Rey here after running from Snoke. It was supposed to be  _ safe. _

Ben spun the saber; Minerva did the same, her feet settling into place. “I don’t want to hurt you, Ben.”

Without a response, Ben launched at Minerva, the out-of-practice Sith barely ducking under the blade. She could smell the ozone off the heat of the blade.

She retaliated with a slice at the saber itself-- if she could disarm, she could diffuse.

Unfortunately, she miscalculated, and Ben sliced at her exposed back, the former Sith falling to the ground in an immobile lump. The saber in her hand switched off, and she didn’t seem to be breathing.

Ben stepped over her body, Rey whimpering and crying at the sight of her fallen sister.

“You’re a  _ monster,”  _ Rey spat out, angrily beating at Ben’s leg and refusing to move elsewhere. “I want Min-Min back!”

Sounds of Luke coming down the hall caused Ben to stop in his tracks. He dropped the saber, the blade burning the ground, and leaped out the window, only moments before Luke got there.

The Jedi master looked down at the body of his most prized student and her sister, Rey now sobbing over Minerva’s unmoving but still alive body.

“Rey.”

“Luke!” she sobbed, running to him. He wrapped her in an embrace, smoothing her loose hair back. “Ben-- he--”

“Shh. It’s okay. I know.” Luke set Rey on his hip and gathered Minerva’s sabers from the floor, and then directed the healers to her.

They carted Minerva off, and Rey sat on Luke’s hip, crying into his neck.

“She’ll be okay,” Luke said. “But we have to get you to a safe place, where Ben can’t find you. Okay?”

Rey nodded. “Okay.”

Luke headed for the ship he swore he’d never fly himself, but here he was, doing his best. 

\------------------------------

Luke was back before Minerva woke up, and he was at her bedside when she did awaken. 

“Minerva,” he muttered, shock registering in his features.

“Luke?” She asked, confused. “Stars, what happened? I feel like....  _ Ugh, ow, _ ” she muttered, trying to sit up. 

Luke pushed her down, but she knocked his hands away with the Force, grimacing. “Where’s Rey?” 

“Somewhere safe. Ben will never find her where she is. I have people watching her, making sure she’s safe.” Luke nodded, looking at the floor. 

“Don’t blame yourself for Ben,” Minerva grunted, glaring at the IVs in her arm like they were toxic. “It wasn’t you. It was Snoke.”

“Who is that, exactly?” 

Minerva took a moment to reply. “Snoke.... Snoke was my master before you. When I was a Sith. The things he made me do.... What he has and will make Ben do, they’re not good things. He’s manipulative, dangerous,  _ toxic _ to the state of this galaxy.” 

Luke sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Another Vader?” 

“No. Another Emperor. Another  _ supreme leader _ .” Minerva sighed, and then yelped as her skin was pulled against the scar. 

_ Scar? _

She leaped off the medcot, tore out her IVs, and darted into the bathroom, lifting the back of her shirt over and twisting in the mirror. 

A jagged, pink scar was sliced across her back, some parts of the scar raised and knotted. Shocked, Minerva dropped the hem, turning to stare at herself in the mirror. Ben had done that, with her blade. He’d massacred  _ children _ with her blade. 

Was that part of the plan? To make her suffer too? With a roar of anger, she shattered the mirror with her hand, parts of the glass lodging themselves in her knuckles and fingers. Blood dripped down her hand onto the white porcelain floor. 

Luke stood in the doorway, and she could feel the concern radiating off him in waves. “Minerva....” 

“Unless you want to end up like this mirror,” she hissed, “you need to leave.” 

Luke hesitated, but listened to the former Sith. What happened to her was life-changing. 

He waited outside her room, allowing her to trash things until she had crumpled into a ball on the floor. 

Luke came back in, carefully stepping over broken machines and glass. “He thinks you’re dead.” 

“I know.” Minerva was on her knees, pulling on her black hair. “I need to talk to your sister. I have to stop Ben before he hurts anyone else.” 

“You’re not strong enough for that.” 

She leaped to her feet, the six-foot-one teen staring Luke in the eye with such drive and malice he visibly flinched. “ _ Then make me strong enough, _ ” she hissed out. 

Luke nodded, backing up a little bit. “I think Leia would take you into her military. Infantry. Are you okay with that?” 

She turned away from him, her long hair that had been down to her waist now jagged and singed from the blade of the saber. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll need my sabers.” 

He nodded, and left the box on the seat he’d been sitting in. 

_ This is it. The return of the Sith. _


End file.
